McConnell: GOP won't hand debt ceiling reins to Obama

12/6/12 10:53 AM EST

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is making it clear congressional Republicans will use the debt ceiling as leverage over President Barack Obama to enact spending cuts to control the nation’s ballooning debt.

In remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, the Kentucky Republican accused Obama of wanting power over the debt limit so Obama “could spend to his heart’s content” and called the president “the last person who should have limitless borrowing power.”

“The American people want Washington to get spending under control, and the debt limit is the best tool we have to make the president take that demand seriously,” McConnell said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid then pulled out a sports analogy, likening the Republican Party to the New York Jets and saying the football team had a problem because it was split among three quarterbacks: Mark Sanchez, Greg McElroy and Tim Tebow.

“He can’t decide who their quarterback is going to be,” Reid said of the Jets’ coach, Rex Ryan. “That’s the same problem the Republicans have.”

McConnell responded to Reid: “There’s no doubt about who the quarterback is on the Democratic side. The quarterback on the Democratic side is the president of the United States. And unfortunately, he keeps throwing interceptions.”

The senator’s exchange on Thursday morning came amid another round of Senate procedural theatrics when McConnell asked for consent for the Senate to vote on the White House’s debt limit proposal. The Obama administration’s offer on resolving the so-called fiscal cliff includes a permanent, “unlimited” debt limit hike with no spending cuts attached, along with a provision that would allow Congress to disapprove the debt increase. Reid swiftly objected.